Ok, this will make some of you cringe, some of you grin and some of you grin and subsequently swoon. I’m just now reading the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer.

It seems my friends either love it or hate it. I was a mild hater, I’ll admit. The only thing I knew about the books and movies were that they concerned vampires (not my thing at all) and vampires IN HIGH SCHOOL no less (years ago for this 30-something). And all of the adolescent girls I’d seen crazily proclaiming themselves to be on “Team Edward” or “Team Jacob” kind of annoyed me. So I had nothing to do with it and rolled my eyes internally when people my age raved and went on about it.

Until….

One of my bookclub besties put Twilight on our list of books to read. I’m sure I did the internal eye-rolling thing (I do that about 38.5 times a day) but then I borrowed the book. And so it began. I finished it in a couple of days and dare I say it…just short of loved it. Lets call it heavy-duty like. I begged my brother-in-law’s fiance to let me borrow the rest of the books and movies and I spent last evening immersed in front of the tv watching the guilty-pleasure-cheesiness of Edward and Bella’s tortured romance. Sidenote: This is a big deal because I rarely watch movies. And even more rarely do I watch them during the work week. Yes, I am old. Another Sidenote: As usual, the book is way better than the movie but I liked both.

Now, let me qualify some things and defend myself to the cringers. Not that I have to, but come on, this is kind of funny. My bro-in-law’s fiance thinks its hilarious that I am now into this because I might have sort of kind of dogged her about her obsession with it. Not that I’m obsessed. No I am certainly not. I’m simply pleasantly wooed by sparkly handsome vampires. That is all. No need for concern.

But as I was saying, this isn’t Pulitzer grade literature. Its certainly not Faulkner or Updike or anything close to intellectual prose. (Although in my opinion, literature is much like art, the classification of it is relative. Another post perhaps.) But what it is, is entertaining escapism. Its romantically cheesy, campy fun. I must admit, I swooned at the over the top absurdness of Edward’s chivalry. But come on, I’m a woman. A woman who has indulged in daydreams of a Prince Charming, sparkly dreamy vampire or not (back in the day my fantasy boys were usually the tall muscular athletic types but I’ve since moved on to the artsy tattooed musician types..dangit, digressing..), rushing in to sweep me off my feet, save the day and whisk me away, all the while murmuring romantic nonsense in my ear and telling me things that every girl wants to hear. It made me think of being in high school again and having the crush on the cute basketball player and then…wow, I’m totally getting way off track here yet again…but anyway…on to New Moon which I will start reading tonight.

I mildly also liked the movies, however have never read the books. Although, from what I’ve heard, she’s a decent writer and the books are better than the movies. And yet, I do think R Patz is good looking if a bit gritty and slightly unwashed.